Children of Paranoia Read Online Free

try to get together.” Jared nodded his head toward the passenger seat. “Where exactly are you headed for your vacation, Michael?”
    â€œYou know I’m not supposed to tell you two losers. What if you’re caught and tortured, you might give me up.” That was protocol. Even meeting for these moments after a job was unorthodox. We were always taught that as few people should know where you are as possible. It was safer that way. Keep moving. Keep quiet. Stay safe. It was boring and lonely as hell. “Besides, you two will probably cramp my style.” There was a pause. “But maybe, I might be headed to Saint Martin—the French side. Great sun, great food. My place is big enough for the five of us. Me, you two, and the two girls I’m bringing home each night.”
    â€œWhat do you think, Joe? Saint Martin? Sit in the sun, drink liquor through a straw, stare at the beautiful women cruising the beach?” My eyes met Jared’s again in the rearview mirror. He was my oldest friend. We’d known each other since long before we knew what type of life we were destined for. When we were in first grade, we played cops and robbers. We pretended to be firemen, astronauts. This, we never imagined. We never played good and evil. Jared looked a little tired, a little worn down.
    â€œI’m in,” I said.
    At the airport we went our separate ways again. Michael dropped me off first. He’d drop Jared in a different location and then return the rental car. As they drove away, Michael leaned out of the passenger-side window, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted, “Remember, young Jedi, the force will be with you always.” I could still hear Michael laughing as I walked through the glass doors into the terminal. From here on out, if the three of us saw each other, we were strangers.
    When I got to my terminal, I went to the flight desk and got a seat assignment for a person whose name wasn’t mine. I showed them an ID with my picture on it but a stranger’s name. Then I boarded a plane to Chicago. It’s a shame that it wasn’t a longer flight because as soon as I leaned back in my chair, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. I didn’t budge when we took off. I barely noticed when we landed. It had gotten to the point where the only place I could ever get a deep sleep was on an airplane.

Three
    In Chicago, I was supposed to assist in a lecture to some local kids. I knew what to expect. It was more an initiation than a lecture. Each kid would be roughly sixteen years old. They’d still be innocent. They’d still have two years left before their worlds began to collapse around them. They’d have two years to get used to the idea that there were people out there who wanted to kill them. I was invited to these things because I represented death. They didn’t know it yet, but I was their future. One of our Intelligence guys would lead the lecture. He would introduce me near the end of his talk. My job was to tell these kids about what I did for a living, to show them what they might one day become. It was kind of like career day for the criminally insane.
    The lecture took place in the den of a house in a wealthy Chicago suburb. The kids sat on couches and upholstered dining room chairs that the adults had pulled into the room for the lecture. Everything was set up so that the kids’ eyes would be directed toward an empty wall where the television usually was. The man hosting the event had three children, two boys and a girl. The oldest child, one of the boys, would turn sixteen in two months. The father had taken the two younger kids into the city for the day. They’d eventually have to sit through this lecture, too, but not today. Most parents tried to shield their kids from the War for as long as they could.
    All told, there were eight kids there, all from around Chicago, all within three months of their sixteenth birthday.